John Adams - The alien and sedition acts

The Federalist majority in Congress also erected defenses against domestic
enemies and thereby hoped to cripple the Republican party. It became
Federalist doctrine that the spread of French radicalism in the United
States was largely the work of revolutionaries from Great Britain and the
Continent. To many, the most conspicuous symbol of this pernicious
influence was Albert Gallatin, a Swiss immigrant who now headed the
opposition in the House. But in the "democratic societies"
or "Jacobin clubs," which had mysteriously sprung up around
1794, and in the unrestrained opposition press, it was believed, were
concentrated less respectable foreigners. These undesirables had fled
their inhospitable native lands only to corrupt the foundations of the
free republic that had given them asylum. During five weeks in June and
July 1798, Congress extended the naturalization period to fourteen years,
provided for the control of enemy aliens in a declared war, and gave the
president for two years the power to deport any foreigner he suspected of
being engaged in subversive activity.

Without being enforced, the Alien Acts intimidated a few foreigners but
otherwise had slight consequences. Infinitely more serious was the
Sedition Act, passed on 14 July. Since the beginning of party warfare
under Washington, the Federalist and Republican newspapers had increased
their levels of vituperation. Even after the XYZ revelations, Republican
editors had continued the abusive attack on Adams, Hamilton, and their
party as tools of England seeking to drag the United States into an
unnecessary and destructive war against a loyal ally to whom gratitude for
past aid was due. They asserted that the president had repeatedly deceived
the people into supporting a war for commerce that would harm the farmers,
who formed the heart of the country. How, they asked, could a party that
in 1794 had sold the nation's soul to Britain in the shameful
Jay's Treaty now appeal to national honor as an excuse for a war
against France?

Such language, interspersed with personal vilification, was treason to
many Federalists. When it proved impossible to define
treason
as words alone, they turned to the English common-law doctrine of
seditious libel. After the bitterest debate of this heated session, a
sedition act was passed by a narrow majority formed almost entirely of
northern legislators. The act, to remain in force until the end of the
current presidential term, included a provision for a fine of as much as
$2,000 and imprisonment not exceeding two years for "writing,
printing, uttering or publishing any false, scandalous and malicious
writing" with unlawful intent against the president or Congress.

President Adams signed the Alien and Sedition Acts. His attitude toward
them at the moment of signing went unrecorded. He had not recommended such
measures to Congress, although some of his replies to the addresses had
condemned foreign influences and the "thousand tongues of
calumny" that threatened the country. Thus, he could be charged
with having helped to create the climate in which the bills were written.
In July 1798 he had not yet seen clearly his duty in this national crisis.
He had set as his life's goal the achievement of fame, which in the
eighteenth-century concept meant acting through disinterested public
service to shape history in such a way as to win the approbation of future
generations. He lost a great opportunity to increase that fame by not
vetoing the most severe restrictions on freedom of expression ever passed
by Congress.